Chess-I can certainly feel your pain. We've got 2 aging cats, a constantly shedding dog and our 5 year old daughters aquarium to contend with. They've all had to adapt to the addition of our (now 10 month old) twin boys and it hasn't been all that pleasant. I've been constantly reminded of my wise old Grandma's quote when she heard that we were going to have a poodle in the house, she said with more than a little conviction "God invented barns for animals to live in-houses are for people". I didn't listen, needless to say.
We're now faced with a new, and even more troublesome addition to our home. My father-in-law, (due in no small part to his own doing), finds himself penniless and in poor health at the ripe old age of 68. We agreed to let him move in with us temporarily. Last Friday I got home from work and find him angrily staring at a blank TV screen and a loud hissing HT system. All he could say was "All these damn speakers give me a head-ache". He tried to shut the system down and apparently punched every button on the every component. Didn't do any harm until he told me that "the sound on the TV was a helluva lot better than what was coming out of the speakers". Ouch. Then to add insult to injury he came into our kitchen and dropped his pants around his knees so he could show me his scar from hip surgery. That's an image I didn't need imbedded in my brain. Anyway, sometimes pets although difficult are still easier to deal with than people. At least I can kick the cat if my wife doesn't catch me.
Good luck with your remodel project.
